Saturday, March 8, 2014

Girl Stoned To Death In Syria For Facebook Account. Sharia Law In Effect

Fatoum Al-Jassem, a young woman living in Syria, was hardly
unusual in wanting to open a Facebook account—many young people do. With
extremist factions in control there, however, that sociability proved fatal:
She was brought before a Sharia court in the northern city of Ar Raqqah and
sentenced to death by stoning, according to a report from the Arabic website
Rai al-Youm. Her execution followed soon after.

Naturally, Sharia law doesn’t offer many provisions when it
comes to the Internet, so the court had to get creative. The prevailing
argument, quickly accepted, was that Al-Jassem’s activity on the website ought
to be construed as a form of “Zina” or immoral behavior equivalent to
adultery—a crime for which the penalty, among Islamist hardliners, is a gruesome,
painful end at the hands of a frenzied, bloodthirsty mob.

ISIS, or Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, is the
radical jihadist Sunni group responsible for the pretense of justice in the
killing. Formed during the Iraq war, they pledged loyalty to al-Qaeda in 2004
and have been waging war against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as well as
government forces in Iraq, all while finding religious excuses to murder
civilians who do not fit into their vision of a pure caliphate connecting the
two countries.

Even al-Qaeda has renounced ISIS at this point, as their
pitiless ideology has undermined efforts to establish a united front among
Syrian rebels. The stoning of a blameless girl like Fatoum Al-Jassem represents
exactly the myopic decision-making that will further alienate mainstream
elements in the region. She shouldn’t have died, but her name may become a
rallying cry among people resisting the brutality of those who consider
themselves holy